ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The capital murder trial of
an Arizona fugitive accused of killing an Oklahoma
couple while on the run will resume Monday with prosecutors calling a fellow inmate to the witness stand.
The prosecution’s case against John McCluskey
hinges partly on the testimony of inmate Tracy
Province. The two, along with an accomplice, sparked a
nationwide manhunt when they escaped from a medium-security prison near Kingman, Ariz., in 2010.
Prosecutors say the trio targeted Gary and Linda
Haas of Tecumseh, Okla., at a rest stop near the TexasNew Mexico state line. Tired of driving more than 1,000
miles in their cramped get-away car, they wanted the
couple’s pickup truck and trailer.
The Haases were carjacked at gunpoint and forced to
drive to a desolate spot along Interstate 40 in eastern
New Mexico. They were shot. Their bodies were
burned along with their trailer and their truck was
stolen.
Province is expected to detail what happened that
summer day on the plains of eastern New Mexico. He
could be on the stand for as many as three days.
McCluskey’s defense attorneys indicated in a recent
motion they intend to challenge Province’s credibility.
The defense also suggested in opening statements
that years of drug use had clouded Province’s memory
and that he had incentive to testify for the prosecution
to avoid the death penalty.
Province and the accomplice, Casslyn Welch, pleaded
guilty last year to numerous charges stemming from
the Haases deaths. Both face life sentences.
Welch, who is also McCluskey’s cousin, is expected to
testify in the coming weeks.
According to court documents, Province separated
from McCluskey and Welch and was arrested in northwestern Wyoming about a week after the Haases were
killed. Authorities said he was found with the Haases’
backpack, a Bible, a gun, a knife and other supplies.
He told authorities his plan was to overdose on heroin at Yellowstone National Park, but he decided to try to
hitchhike to Indiana instead.
Province was already was serving life in prison for
murder and robbery when the prison break happened.

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tors to focus
efforts on tornado recovery.
“Families are
hurting. Lives
have been lost.
Helping
out
friends, neighbors and families through this
hardship takes
priority. There is
another day to
perform
our
task,” Chickasaw Nation Gov.
Bill Anoatubby,
chairman of the
Native American
Cultural
and
BLAKE WADE Education
Executive Director Authority board,
said in a statement at the time.
Lawmakers
ended up passing
several items related to tornado recovery efforts, including a $45 million
relief package and tax reforms for victims. It was a move that Loveless and
Wade said was the necessary and the
right thing to do. But once again, the
museum was without money to continue with construction.
A new opening date has been set for
2017, Wade said. Right now, dirt or bare
concrete paths wind through the
grounds while specially selected stone
pieces quarried for the project sit
unused. Plywood covers the walkway to
a large promontory designed to resemble historic American Indian mounds.
Meanwhile, the state is paying $52,000
a month for security at the site until
lawmakers can vote on the $40 million
funding bill in February.
That’s when, Wade said, the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum faces what could be its last chance
to convince the lawmakers of the project’s importance.
“I feel this really would be our last
opportunity this next session, in my
opinion. We cannot continue to pay
$52,000 a month for many more years,”
he said.
Both Wade and Loveless think the
third time is the charm, and now Wade
is focusing on maintaining contributions from about 150 private donors like
Tulsan George Kaiser, a billionaire
businessman and philanthropist who
donated $1 million, and companies like
Devon Energy.
It’ll be an uphill battle to convince
lawmakers like Sen. Greg Treat,
though.
Treat said he wants the cultural center and museum completed like everyone else — just not with any more state
money. Treat believes the project could
be finished with additional fundraising
from private donors.
The Republican senator was one of
three lawmakers who asked Fallin to
request an audit of the project last year.
The audit found that the board chose
the most expensive proposal to build
the American Indian Cultural Center
and Museum, while having only $5 million in funding at the time. It also said
lawmakers need to play a greater role
in overseeing the project.
Treat said legislators didn’t offer the
proper oversight of the project, while
he found it “troublesome” that the
board would select the most expensive
options, he said.
Loveless, though, thinks people will
realize the project’s potential once it’s
complete.
“It has been a bumpy road, but I definitely think it’s going to be worth it,”
he said.

“I feel this really would
be our last opportunity
this next session, in my
opinion. We cannot continue to pay $52,000 a
month for many more
years.”

OKLAHOMA
CITY
— The
idea was ambitious and smart:
Design a sprawling multimilliondollar museum
in Oklahoma’s
capital city to
pay homage to
the state’s 39 federally
recognized
tribes,
build it at the
intersection of
two cross-country interstates,
then take in millions of dollars
as tourists from
around the world
flocked to Smithsonian-quality
exhibits.
But the reality is far different at the
$170 million American Indian Cultural
Center and Museum. It’s half-built and
short of the money needed for completion two decades after the idea was proposed and seven years after the land
was blessed by tribes and construction
started.
“It is a costly project. I don’t think
anyone has ever denied that,” said Sen.
Kyle Loveless, whose district includes
the museum site at the intersection of
Interstates 35 and 40 near downtown
Oklahoma City. Once a self-acknowledged skeptic of the project, Loveless is
now one of its biggest supporters.
“To me, it’s one of those projects
where long-term and short-term, once
people see that it’s open and when we
finally get there, they will appreciate
it,” he said.
When completed, the cultural center
and museum will feature material from
each Oklahoma tribe that is recognized
by the federal government and items
from the the National Museum of the
American Indian in Washington and
other tribal museums. One study said
the museum could generate $3.8 billion
in economic activity regionally over
the next 20 years.
But whether it will ever be completed
the way its supporters envision it is a
major issue. Initially, federal, state and
private sources would split the costs
evenly, but after federal funds dried up,
the Native American Cultural and Education Authority, the state agency overseeing the museum project, turned to
the state.
At that point $91 million — much of it
via state bonds — had been devoted to
the project, leaving it $80 million short.
Gov. Mary Fallin hired executive director Blake Wade to raise $40 million in
private donations and promised $40
million in matching money for the project.
The private donations were raised,
but the state Legislature has balked at
passing the bill to provide matching
funds. Two years ago, the bill failed to
pass through the Senate by one vote. In
the 2013 session, Wade and Loveless
said they were confident they had the
necessary votes to pass the bill to
secure the $40 million in funding and
re-start construction that had stopped
July 1, 2012.
Then disaster struck.
An EF5 tornado sliced through
Moore, killing more than 20 people during the final week of the legislative session. Supporters of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum,
which is just 10 miles north of where
the May 20 tornado struck, told legisla-

Oklahoma
speaker
lays out
guidelines
for session
OKLAHOMA
CITY
(AP) — Oklahoma lawmakers will likely take
up more than two dozen
bills when they convene
at the state Capitol next
month for a special session dealing with tort
legislation, according to
House Speaker T.W.
Shannon.
Shannon, R-Lawton,
said a rewrite of the
state’s tort system would
require 26 to 28 bills. The
Journal Record reported
Sunday that Shannon
told lawmakers in a
memo last week there’s
no deadline for bill introduction, though all
House bills will be read
on Sept. 3, the first day of
the session.
He said he expects the
session to last six to 10
days.
Gov. Mary Fallin called
the special session to
restore several laws overturned by the state
Supreme Court that were
designed to cut businesses’ legal liability costs.
It will be the first special legislative session
since Fallin took office in
2011, and the governor
wants lawmakers to
limit the session to
restoring the provisions
of a bill adopted in 2009
that was designed to
reduce the number of
frivolous lawsuits and
medical
malpractice
claims filed in Oklahoma.
The high court threw
out the legislation earlier
this year, finding that it
violated the single-subject rule in the Oklahoma Constitution and
amounted to logrolling,
or the passing of legislation that contains multiple subjects.
Some Democrats have
opposed the special session, noting that it would
cost taxpayers about
$30,000 per day.
“The Democrats in the
state Senate believe that
a special session to revisit this issue is a waste of
both time and taxpayer
dollars,” said Sen. Sean
Burrage, D-Claremore.
State Rep. Jeannie
McDaniel, D-Tulsa, said
the tort reform legislation would pass both
chambers of the Legislature.
“The way things are
going, it looks like they
have the votes to pass it,”
she said. “But what’s sad
to me is I’m getting email
from the medical community urging me to support the bill. But, at the
same time, these same
people have stayed silent
on Medicaid expansion.”